"Bart's Blog gives an in depth and up-to-date perspective on travel in Latin America. Bart is a quirky travel enthusiast who knows the continent from back to front. His friendly advice on Travel in Latin America - specially in Peru , Argentina, Chile, Bolivia and Brazil is helpful, practical and informative.." Blogger's Choice Awards

Wednesday, December 14, 2005

Here I'll start a series of South America Travel Guide Reviews , that I hope are useful to my fellow travelers. Comments will be greatly apprecieted!

I have lived in South America for the last 10 years (7 years in peru, 3 in Argentina) and am constantly looking for accurate Travel Guides to recommend to CAT's always demanding clients and to steadily improve our work on giving pertinent and useful info as well. Insight Guide Peru has one noticiable strenght by its side: This is probably the best source of deep background on specific destinationsand activities. As a tour operator in Latin America I always recommend this particular guide when, for instance, travelers are deeply interested in birdwatching in, say , the Manu Reserve in the peruvian amazon jungle, a less well known destination when comparing to Macchu Pichu, the Nazca Lines or Senor de Sipan. Nevertheless, this level of detail is also available for the abovementioned "classic" destinies as well. Visually stunning, Insight Guide is the National Geographic of the Travel Guides.

Monday, December 12, 2005

I'm Bart de Graaf, I was born in The Netherlands some 35 years ago. I'm married to Karin and father of Edie, our beautiful 16 month-old baby girl. I studied International Tourism Management and Consultancy at the Superior Institute for Tourism Studies in Breda, The Netherlands, but my constant urge to get away into the wide open spaces of traveling freedom made me a nightmare for my professors and fellow students.

I dreamt up the idea of setting up a tour operating company on my way to Ecuador's inner jungle in 1994, on one of several trips through the area. I've been an active South America explorer for over 12 years now and have seen and experienced many of the surprises one can encounter living, working and traveling in this wild continent. After barely graduating in 1996 I almost immediately made my way to Peru to make my two dreams reality: turn my hobby into a professional way of living and try to help building the cultural bridge between South America and the rest of the world.

After 10 hard working years in Peru we now own and run what we like to think of as one of the most efficient tour operating companies in the region, managing not only Peru, but also Brazil, Argentina, Chile and Bolivia, with proper offices in the first three countries and growing! You're welcomed to visit us at www.cat-travel.com.

What I expect of this blog is to share the experience of how traveling up and down Latin America has molded my life and determined in one way or another, who I am today.

Well, guess that's pretty much my life so far. In the words of Jan Myrdal: "Traveling is not just seeing the new; it is also leaving behind. Not just opening doors; also closing them behind you, never to return. But the place you have left forever is always there for you to see whenever you shut your eyes."